September 29, 2011

Happy Holidays...


For those of you celebrating Rosh Hashanah, for those of you not celebrating, for those of you taking the day off just because you can, and for those of you wondering what the hell this is... "L'Shana Tova," which means "For a Good Year" in Hebrew. Happy Rosh Hashanah!

(image from someecards.com)

September 27, 2011

Sesame Street vs Glee...



This blog post is brought to you by the letter "G"...!

I haven't watched Sesame Street in many years, and Glee seems to have lost much of its mojo in season 2, so it was totally fun to watch this Muppetized Sesame Street Glee parody, which is the best of both worlds. Love it!

As any Gleek can see, this parody is bang on -- the muppet versions of Schuster (Gooster), Kurt, Rachel and Sue are hilarious, they spontaneously break into a big musical number, and glitter just magically appears with the costume changes for the big production number. So fun!

My favourite line... “I wasn’t asking you Gooster, I was asking the funny shaped kid!"

I hope the Glee producers see this and learn from it --- your show needs more music, more humour, and, uh, maybe some puppets...

September 25, 2011

Faves Of New TV Season...


The Emmys last Sunday kicked off the new fall season for network television, and as usual lots of new shows compete with lots of returning shows which compete with lots of reality shows which compete with lots of copycat shows which compete with lots of crap.

Here's what's caught my attention...

Up All Night was funny and fast, better than I expected. Will watch again.

The much-hyped New Girl annoyed me. I did laugh a bit, but they are trying to hard to make the lead character fake dorky and adorable. Overall pretty much annoyed me. The producers should watch The New Adventures of Old Christine to see female lead sitcom done well.

My favourite show continues to be The Good Wife which returns tonight. The double episode season premiere of Big Bang Theory was very funny as expected, including a paintball war among feuding scientists and nerds bed hopping.

While watching the touching Castle premiere, I avoided The Playboy Club, as did everyone else, based on the ratings. I also skipped a bunch of hyped new shows, like Ringer, A Gifted Man, and Person of Interest. Anyone watch them?

I watched four minutes of the new series Unforgettable, which was all I needed to disprove the title. And I didn't even give four minutes to the Charlie's Angels reboot or the Prime Suspect remake, as even the commercials looked bland. The reboot that did work was the reinvented Two And a Half Men, which was clever and funny. I had low expectations for Ashton and company, and they sure beat them.

Aside from the Chaz Bono factor, the season premiere of Dancing With The Kardashian-Level Stars was not exciting. I will leave when Chaz does. (Go Team Chaz!).

And while I usually love the show, gotta admit the Glee season premiere was truly mediocre, aside from the sexy Darren Criss It's So Unusual solo. and my favourite number, the Glee kids covering the Go-Go's We Got The Beat...



... What have you been watching?

September 22, 2011

Big Bang star on gay rumours...

In honour of tonight's season premiere of The Big Bang Theory, here again is my favourite quote from one of its Emmy-nominated stars...

Johnny Galecki, who plays Leonard on Big Bang, has played gay on Broadway and in films, and been the subject of tabloid rumours. His totally classy response?

"I haven't really addressed those rumours because why defend yourself against something that isn't offensive?"

Awesome answer.

September 18, 2011

Welcome to the Modern Family Emmys...


I am a masochist when it comes to awards shows. Yes, I keep going back for more of the pain, even when they suck way more often than they soar.

That being said, this weekend's Emmy awards celebrating the best of TV were a rare success, with Jane Lynch doing a solid job hosting. She started off with a multi-show musical number, and topped it off by proclaiming "Try THAT in triple Spanx!" Gotta love her.

I think my favourite moment of the show was when Amy Poehler walked up on stage as her nomination was announced for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy. The rest of her fellow nominees followed suit one by one, making for a talented supportive group on stage. And then surprise winner Melissa McCarthy was crowned with a tiara and bouquet like in a beauty pageant. Her touching shocked speech was real and amazing.


Here's my best and worst moments from the show... tell me yours in the comments section:

Highlights
- Julianna Marguiles winning again for The Good Wife
- the comedy video of sitcom characters saying what they hate most about their jobs, featuring Ashton Kutcher joining the wrong show (sounds weird, but it worked)
- Drew Barrymore, who looked her best ever... too bad she was promoting the buzz-less Charlie's Angels reboot
- Jane Lynch introducing the cast of Entourage by saying "A lot of people are curious why I'm a lesbian..."
- Kyle Chandler's sweet and humble acceptance speech as Best Actor
- "This year men finally broke through the glass ceiling. No more just looking pretty." -Melissa McCarthy & Amy Poehler
- the Canadian Tenors singing Hallelujah during the "In Memoriam" segment
- Modern Family producer Steve Levitan's call out to gay families during one of the show's 843 acceptance speeches

Lowlights
- the lame voice over banter; this is the worst shlock of the show year after year
- the "Lonely Island" Michale Bolton musical number, an SNL spinoff that was so awful it was painful to watch
- Rob Lowe and Sofia Vegara doing yet another schtick on her accent
- Emmy Tones celebrity back-up singers; I love you Joel McHale, but this blew
- the clunky Anderson Cooper & Jane Lynch Real Housewives meets Jersey Shore short video. There is such a thing as trying too hard.

Lesson learned -- apparently I don't watch enough TV. I should watch Upstairs Downstairs, Friday Night Lights, Too Big To Fail, Downtown Abbey.....

September 16, 2011

Fortune Cookie Wisdom...


On a crazy busy day last week a coworker and I hopped over to the food court, and rather than my usual salad or sub, we went to the new Chinese fast food place and overdosed on flat noodles and garlic.

The fun part of the meal was the fortune cookies. Sure the cookies taste like stale damp cardboard, but the fortunes are always silly fun.

Here's my fortune:
A wacky invention will lead to your success.

Here's the problemo ---- I'm not much of an inventor, unless combining Licorice Allsorts, popcorn and kosher salt counts as "inventing" something. Not only do I not invent things, I don't think of things to invent.

Then again, my fortune doesn't say that I need to invent things... it just speaks of wacky inventions... so if I could invent things, or if inventions I wanted could magically appear, here's what they would be:

And these are WACKY inventions, so no serious stuff about world peace etc...

1- A robot elf to clean our house, more than a roomba, it should dust and vacuum and please god scrub the toilets.

2- Another magical elf to exercise for me; and yes the pounds fall off me not Mr Elf (that's the magic part).

3- A car that washes and fills itself with gas, with a special attachment to powerblast away the insect genocide on the front grill after every long highway drive.

4- A pooper scooper that does it all.

5- The power to magically block out the song "Der Kommissar" from any radio station I listen to; hell while we're at it, let's block all things Lohan from my life entirely.

On second thought, I need a personal assistant with magical powers, not a wacky invention... where's the moola for that, oh fortune cookie?

What wacky inventions would you want?

September 13, 2011

Confessions: I love my dog, but....

Alfie is the cutest dog in the world. Second is my step dog Quinn, and then my best friend's dog Harry Potter, and yes your dog is adorable as well, whoever you are reading this and feeling slighted...

But my little Ewok Alfred is the cutest, sweetest, best dog, hands down. Period.

And yet wonderful as the little furball is, and much as I love him, sometimes he is just a weird little dog. There are things that make me wonder what the eff is he thinking...

1- Barking at the wind: not just storms, but any wind, and the little dude is running and barking and freaking out.

2- Napping sprawled across the computer keyboard; never one to be anything but the centre of attention, when I am online and the little dude is feeling out of the spotlight, he sprawls across the keyboard like he is Liza on a grand piano.

3- Pooping on the move: Alfie crouches and walks as he poops, so those of us walking and scooping get to hunch over and follow along... because scooping dog shit at night should be a flashlight scavenger hunt.

4- Now that my laptop is sometimes displaced by an iPad, Alfie sprawls and naps on the iPad (or iPillow to him).

5- While I am not a huge fan of vacuums, Alfred is literally terrified of them; he barks, runs away, trembles head to paw, or some combination of all three.

6- He waits outside the shower for me, so I have to step over him as I reach for a towel, or say "excuse me" so he will move - which means I am interrupting the little dude chewing on yet another bath mat.

7- He follows me into the bathroom, including the tiny claustrophobic water closet that even he can't turn around in. Why?

8- Alfie fake pees when he wants to stay outside longer (he actually got this one from his stepbrother Quinn). Okay, I do actually respect the creative strategy of this one.

9- Tail wagging ferociously, Alfie barks enthusiastically at every dog he meets; and when those dogs don't react, Mr Alfred just barks louder. And louder. And louder... until he gets some attention.

10- Alfred loves to eat rabbit poop, which comes in convenient pellet form, and seeks it out on every walk outside. As we live in wild rabbit country, this crap is everywhere, and he always finds it. The only way it could be easier is if I bought him a rabbit poop Pez dispenser.

Alfie is loving, cute, mischievous, turns into a jumping puppy when we get snow or he gets a new treat... totally awesome dog. And as for all these goofy habits, hey, I said he was cute, not a rocket scientist...

Then again, he eats, plays, poops, and sleeps, while I chauffeur him to and from doggie daycare and pay all the bills, so maybe he ain't so dumb...

September 9, 2011

Fab-u-lous Gay Marriage Signs...

To all the haters...

You're making Ellen sad....

As the marriage equality debate continues to make headlines in the USA and around the world, here are some fun and creative signs from some marches and protests. I love it when the boys (and girls) do stuff with style!








September 7, 2011

90s Music: Celine, Achy Breaky, Barbie...


I love love 70s and 80s music, from Linda Ronstadt to the Eagles to Fleetwood Mac to one-hot wonder Vicki Lawrence. I play it constantly in our house; you can ask my husband, who can usually be found in another room.

Yet 90s music is not such a big thing for me; the 90s produced some of my favourite albums, like Rosanne Cash's The Wheel, but overall there just wasn't much of an impression left.

Pop culture dinosaur Rolling Stone magazine has just published their readers' poll for the worst songs of the 90s:

10 - 4 Non-Blondes, What's Up?
9 - Right Said Fred, I'm Too Sexy
8 - Baha Men, Who Let The Dogs Out?
7- Celine Dion, My Heart Will Go On
6- Hanson, Mmmbop
5-Chumbawamba, Tubthumping
4- Vanilla Ice, Ice Ice Baby
3- Billy Ray Cyrus, Achy Breaky Heart
2- Los Del Rio, Macarena
1- Aqua, Barbie Girl

Yes the Baha Men song totally blows. But I actually like Tubthumping, and isn't the Celine song horribly overplayed rather than horrible?

And okay the Barbie song was annoying, but it wasn't hideous, and I loved the fact that Barbie-maker Mattel was so pissed off they sued the unknown band. And if you can get past the mullet, actually get past the whole video, Achy Breaky is forgettable rather than awful. And all I remember about the Macarena was being at a friend's wedding where the bride (my friend) danced it with everyone. Poorly. They're divorced now, probably a total coincidence.

There was way worse stuff than Mmmbop in the 90s... What about Michael Bolton? Bush? Creed? Anything by Limp Bizkit? Eiffel 65 Blue? Kriss Kross? Britney? Hootie and the Blowfish? So many choices...

What were your worst songs of the 90s?

September 2, 2011

Your Cashier Was Gay...


I never really pay attention to my grocery store receipts, because I don't want to remember how much I spent, and I don't want to acknowledge the vast amounts of frozen pizza we bring home.

However I should apparently, because looks like store employees have started using these slips of paper as personal diaries.

And yes this might just be a cashier named Gay, or a typo on Gary, but I choose to believe it's an incredibly brave and bold coming out statement by a young teen in the deep south, slowly moving his small rural community forward...

(photo from www.happyplace.com)